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Click
here to find out more about the
incredible story of how the church of Our Lady of Light was built!
The Parish is served by two Mass centres: |
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 You
are very welcome to visit our fascinating churches and celebrate
Mass with us! - Please use the links above to find out how to find
us.
Visitors can be assured a warm welcome to the
Parish from our small but committed community.
Please be assured that we
are a children - friendly parish!
Fr. Eric
Manley-Harris
Parish
Priest
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Our Lady of Fatima,
pray for us
Tell us what you
think!
This site is designed to be
informative and helpful - we would welcome any suggestions as to how
we can improve the site. please contact me with any news or
suggestions at
fr.eric@tiscali.co.uk
On
sale - Pens suitably inscribed “St Edmund of Abingdon, Westcott” and
“Our Lady of Light, Long Crendon” - price £2 each.
The Faith, The
Family …The Future
This is a
conference of hope for young people and families organized by
Catholic Families for Catholic Families. It is being held at All
Saints Pastoral Centre, Long Colney, St Albans, Herts. from 25th-26th
October 2008. Booking Forms are now available in both churches.
Volunteers
required
Gordon Curtis has informed me
that he will shortly be drawing up a new list of parishioners
willing to count the Sunday collections following the 10.00am Sunday
Mass at Long Crendon. With Lucy Aslett’s departure to the USA the
pool is reduced still further. If you could help please get in touch
with Gordon direct on 01865 351471.
Sponsored Cycle Ride on behalf of The Society
of St Peter the Apostle
Thanks to
all who have pledged sponsorship to Fr Gerard Byrne (Parish Priest
of St Brendan’s, Corby), who has undertaken to cycle around the
coast of Ireland – a distance of over 1400 miles – to raise funds
for The Society of St Peter the Apostle, please place your pledge in
an envelope marked “Fr Gerald Byrne” and place it on the offertory
plate next time you come to Mass.
Our Weekly Financial
Giving & Other Income
Sunday
10/08/08 Offertory. £107.74p: Votive candles £42.54 Sponsored Cycle
Ride (Fr Gerard Byrne) £15.00p Mass stipends £11.00 Direct giving:
£175.00p (weekly average)
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Next Friday, I shall be joining the Northampton Diocesan Pilgrimage
to Lourdes which is being led by the Bishop, Rt Revd Peter Doyle.
Those of us who are travelling by train depart from London St
Pancras by Eurostar at 9.40 and arrive at Paris Gare du Nord at
12.47. We then transfer by coach to Paris Montparnasse to join TVV
Train departing 1410 and arrive in Lourdes at 20.18 in time for
supper at 8.30am and then to bed! Fortunately, Saturday’s programme
has a late start with the ‘Gathering Mass’ at 2.30pm.
Altogether there are five English dioceses taking part in this
annual pilgrimage organized by the Catholic Association;
Northampton, East Anglia, Clifton, Portsmouth and Southwark. Each
of the Bishops will preside at the Pilgrim’s Mass celebrated daily
for the pilgrims from these dioceses.
On Monday the Northampton
pilgrims have an early start with Mass at 8.30am followed by visits
to places associated with St Bernadette and her family.
On Tuesday Archbishop Kevin
McDonald of Southwark celebrates Mass for us at the Grotto where the
fourteen-year old shepherdess, Bernadette Soubirous had a vision of
a “Lady” in a cave at Massabielle, beside the River Gave which runs
through Lourdes.
These visions, of a woman
dressed in blue and white, continued from 11 February 1858 until 16
July the same year. In the course of these visions, the Lady called
for repentance, and for a chapel to be built on the spot at which
they took place.
On 25 March, the Feast of the
Annunciation, she named herself, speaking as she commonly did, in
the local dialect: “I am the Immaculate Conception”, a
doctrine declared binding on the belief of all Catholics four years
before.
The authenticity of the 17
appearances was rapidly accepted, and a statue of the Virgin, made
to Bernadette’s description, was unveiled in the cave in April
1864. Two years later Bernadette became a nun in the Congregation
whose school she had attended, and was sent from Lourdes to Nevers,
where she died in 1879. She was canonized in 1933 for her holy
life. After Rome, Lourdes has become the most important pilgrimage
centre for Christians.
To continue our Pilgrimage
itinerary, we take part in a Penitential Service in the St Pius X
Basilica on Tuesday at 2.00pm. Every day there is a Blessed
Sacrament Procession and Blessing of the Sick in the this Basilica
at 5.00pm
On Thursday the Northampton
pilgrims attend Mass with the Anointing of the Sick celebrated by
Bishop Crispian Hollis in the St Bernadette church. Following Mass
we will also have the opportunity to listen to a Doctor’s Talk on
Medical Aspects of Lourdes in the Salle Leuret in the Information
Centre. In the afternoon we will have an opportunity to pray with
the sick at the Baths.
Naturally, bathing in the
waters of Lourdes and drinking from the spring water which comes
from a hitherto unknown spring which seemingly came into being at
the site of the visions, only in the course of them, on 25 February
1858.
We conclude our pilgrimage on
the Friday with Mass at 8.00m celebrated by Bishop Peter Doyle and
then head for home on the train from Lourdes to Paris to London
arriving at St Pancras at 21.40.
Whilst the Pilgrimage schedule looks a busy one, there is much free
time to think and pray about God’s love and mercy shining through
Our Lady who appeared to St Bernadette and declared “I am the
Immaculate Conception”
And to thank God for the innocence, humility, and obedience of
Bernadette’s
holy life which led the Church to declare her a saint in 1933.
A time also to thank God for all the miracles associated with this
holy place: for those cures officially declared to be miraculous
cures and for all the ‘little miracles’ of grace which take place in
the lives of pilgrims who seek encouragement and help in their daily
lives through the prayers of Our Lady.
Please
pray for all on pilgrimage to Lourdes at this time.
Please pray for the sick at home and in hospital especially
for Keith Ahmid,
Juno Alexander, Alan Ashton,
Elspeth Castle, Jane and William Druce, Joyce Evans, Clifford John
Evans, Shelagh Garner, John Jillians, Christine Maitland, Claire
Martin, Lara Mockler, Margaret Morris-Adams, Amanda Norris, Pil
Kerrigan, & Barbara O’Callaghan
For the departed:
for all departed family, friends & benefactors and in particular
for Requiescant in pace
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